Baguio land scams

EDITORIAL

Beware if you are planning to buy a lot in Baguio City. You may be in for trouble – a victim of a land scam.

Baguio officials warned the public last week about indiscriminate sale of lots in the country’s summer capital amid land speculation ploys as a result of unresolved issues on spurious ancestral land titles over government reservations, expanded and overlapping titles and other land scams hounding the city.

            

Mayor Mauricio Domogan cautioned the public to be wary of the ongoing sale of parcels of land within the Baguio Dairy Farm at Green Valley along Marcos Highway so as not to fall prey to land speculators who reportedly use his name to convince people to pay fees up to P60,000.

            

Vice mayor Daniel Farinas decried the proliferation of land scams in the city which victimize innocent land buyers prompting a city council resolution warning the public to be vigilant in buying lands.

            

The body tasked its committee on lands under Councilor Leandro Yangot Jr. to firm up the resolution for final approval.        

Domogan said he never approved the sale of the Dairy Farm lots contrary to what the sellers have been telling the buyers.

The mayor said the sale is illegal as the area remains to be part of the Bureau of Animal Industry  reservation under the Dept. of Agriculture.  He said he endorsed a petition to the DA to segregate a portion for low cost housing but the same has not been approved.

           

The mayor said the DA filed a case against the squatters occupying said lots and won the case.  However, the DA is still waiting for the writ of execution to carry out the demolition of the illegal structures.

            

More than 62 hectares of the Dairy Farm had been issued a Certificate of Ancestral Land Title (CALT) by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in favor the heirs of Ikang Paus but the same is presently the subject of cancellation proceedings due to questions on the validity of the claims including the adverse claims by the descendants of Mateo Carino.

           

The mayor encouraged those who have been victimized to execute affidavits and file cases against the perpetrators to stop the illegal activity.

            

Officials urged those who have been duped to report incidents to authorities so cases would be filed against culprits/